


Generations

by Chixadee



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Angst, Dib & Zim Friendship (Invader Zim), Dib is a clone, My First Fanfic, a little peril to bring them together, and movie dib, and really upset, are generations of clones, basically pilot dib, membrane is pretty bad tbh, pilot dib is back baby, series dib, the boys are friends, with good reason
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:21:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27121715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chixadee/pseuds/Chixadee
Summary: He had escaped. Membrane had hoped that the alarm had warned him in time, but his experiment was long gone by the time he arrived at his lab. He was too dangerous to be loose. Membrane had to move quickly. Dib's shift had been pretty unremarkable. The customers kept trickling in, and he kept manning the register. So the last thing he expected was an exact copy of himself to burst through the door.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 35





	1. Meet the Dibs

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for stopping by! This chapter contains a couple of instances of violence, but nothing graphic. Hope you enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for stopping by! There are a couple instances of violence in this chapter, but nothing graphic. Hope you enjoy!

This was it. This was the moment Dib had been working toward for so long. Everyone had doubted, had pushed him away. And now here they were, all eyes on him. His peers, his colleagues, everyone he had ever resented stood before Dib, helplessly captivated by his discovery: the Irken invader Zim. 

The alien was cuffed at his wrists and ankles. The metal board that hoisted him upright wrapped around his PAK to contain those pesky spider legs. Zim’s prized uniform was in tatters as a result of their most recent battle, one that had proven to be their last. His ever-present look of rage was still intact, however.

_ Good. _

Dib lifted his arm next to his head and pressed a button on the guantlet he wore, making the metal tray lay back so that it was three feet off of the ground. He walked over to Zim’s side and was immediately met with a stream of curses in Irken as well as several Earth languages. Dib smiled. That was all that Zim  _ could  _ do right now. The mighty Irken was completely at Dib’s mercy, and they both knew it. Dib didn’t retort with words. Instead, he retrieved a scalpel from the nearby table and raised it above Zim’s chest.

_ There it is. _

Zim’s eyes were large, his body still, his teeth clenched in anticipation now instead of hatred. He was  _ afraid.  _ Dib’s grin grew bigger.

“Time to see what you’re made of space-boy,” Dib said. “Now smile for the crowd.” He turned to scan the rows of onlookers past the stage. There were familiar faces among them. Many Swollen Eyeball agents had shown up to see the spectacle, including Dark Booty himself. His classmates were there too, wearing faces of awe. Camera drones swirled around above them all, tuning even more in at home. Even President Man from President Land had made an appearance. And then there was his sister and partner, Gaz, who was standing by their father.

Their father.

_ Their fucking dad. _

Dib stared at the tall scientist giving him a thumbs-up. This wasn’t right. This was all  _ wrong. _ Why was his dad here - the man who Dib could never prove anything to, never make proud? Dib’s pupils narrowed and his chest heaved. He closed his eyes, let out a snarl, and plunged the scalpel into Zim. Nothing. No screaming, no struggle. Dib opened his eyes to find a new look on Zim’s face - one of pity.

“No,” was all that Dib could say. “No, no, no…” He hated the way Zim was looking at him. He had won!  _ Zim _ was the one who needed pity, not Dib! He turned his scrunched face to the crowd, only to find that they had all gone. It was only he and Zim left. 

But he had finally  _ won. _

**Containment ERROR**

**Subject 1 REJECTED**

**Initiating emergency protocols**

Dib was underwater. There were long, thin things wrapping around him, keeping him in place. _ Probably seaweed or debris,  _ he thought. He’d had nightmares about this sort of thing ever since his run-in with a siren. His theory was disproven after he grasped one of the offending objects. It was metal, and snaked from his chest down to a floor that Dib could not make out amidst the green, hazy fluid. Then everything was red and chaos. The water rushed forward and he went with it. He landed on cold, hard concrete, the feeling of which broke him out of his haze. He sat up and took in his surroundings with new clarity. 

Dib was in his father’s lab, it seemed, though it looked a bit different than how he remembered it. Batio 4000, the robot that his dad had built to spend “father-son” time with Dib while he was away at work, still stood in the far corner, unused. The tables full of experiments and vials were still present, but there were four new additions along the wall behind Dib. They were large, cyclindrical tubes that stretched from floor to ceiling and were filled with green liquid. Inside of each was a person, excluding the one that Dib presumed he had just fallen out of. It was who the people were that made Dib go pale.

_ They were them. _

Two familiar little girls with spiky, purple hair occupied the two pods furthest from Dib. Metal cables snaked down to bury themselves into his sisters’ bodies at various points. And then there was  _ him.  _ In the next pod, Dib saw himself. A perfect mirror, save for the blue shirt in place of his usual yellow. Dib, er,  _ he  _ just floated there, suspended in that green liquid. What the hell was happening? Why had Dib woken up in a pod in his father’s basement? Why were there clones of he and his sister?

_ Had the life he’d been living all been just a dream? _

Dib moved frantically over to the table opposite of the pods. There were papers arranged in neat piles on top of it, the contents of which made Dib’s stomach lurch. They were clones. They always had been. They weren’t his father’s children, they were  _ experiments. _ What was worse, it seemed that they hadn’t even been the only ones. Dib and Gaz had only been the first in a line of failed children - each being condemned as the last had. Dib skimmed over the conclusion of each generation.

**Dib Alpha:** Naturally curious, a good trait for a scientist, if he did not spend his energy hunting down various wise-tales. Dib Alpha also exhibits narcissistic tendencies as well as a manic personality. He is prone to violent outbursts and is drawn to sadistic activities, including running experiments on his sister, Gaz Alpha. I presume that a mixture of unknown errors during the cloning process and a lack of socialization while in the lab at a young age is to blame for these issues.

**Gaz Alpha:** She shows interest in video games, though this can quickly consume her day if not kept in check. Gaz Alpha is usually apathetic or angry. Her apathy leads to Dib Alpha often taking advantage of her to run experiments. This will need to be addressed in her successor.

**Dib Beta:** Again, Dib Beta finds a special interest in pseudo-science. This is growing tiresome. Though this generation is much less violent, the narcissism and mania remain. However, they have been tempered through alteration of memories. Dib Beta seems to care about others and the planet much more than Alpha had, which I had hoped I could leverage to introduce him to real science. He is obsessive to an extreme. This has proven to be difficult to weed out.

**Gaz Beta:** The love of video games was retained from the previous generation, though Beta enjoys art and engineering as well. She has proven to be quite skilled in converting her stuffed animals into robots. Though Gaz Beta is more capable of standing up for herself, her rage is often too severe. I have yet to find a way to temper this.

**Dib Charlie:** EVALUATION ONGOING

**Gaz Charlie:** EVALUATION ONGOING

Dib felt like throwing up. Membrane had stuffed him into the basement just because he hadn’t been satisfied with his work. Worse, there was an imitator running around with  _ his  _ face.  _ His  _ memories. He gripped the skin of his face and pulled down. It was all too much. All of this was  _ too much. _ He hadn’t even realized that he’d wrenched the metal bat out of Batio 4000’s hands until he was stood before Dib Beta. Dib saw white as he brought the bat to the glass. It shattered and the imposter inside spilled out onto the floor beside him.

_ This shouldn’t exist. I can’t look at this. _

Dib raised the bat above his head. Dib Beta just lied there beneath him, blissfully unaware of what he was as he lied comatose. Dib roared. He kept roaring as he brought the bat down.


	2. All in All, Not Such a Bad Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Membrane is summoned to his home lab following the containment breach and Dib and Zim watch Netflix. Riveting.
> 
> I also have an Instagram page where I plan on uploading art from Generations, so check that out at chix.adee on Instagram!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter serves to set up chapter 3. Nothing substantial exactly happens, but I did include some nice Dib/Zim couch time.

_ THWACK! _

“Ow, quit it, Zim!” Dib rubbed at the sore spot on his forehead where Zim had flicked him. He loved to rub it in when he won. The invader wore that insufferable smirk that Dib couldn’t stand, but saw all too often after their battles.

“Zim has proven himself superior once again Dib-smelly. BOW BEFORE ZIM!” And there was the yelling. Dib had concluded a while ago that Zim was hard of hearing, which only made his gloating inescapable most of the time. 

“Such a mighty invader you are, beating me at Smash Bros,” Dib retorted, setting down his controller. “I’m going to grab a snack. Want anything?”

Zim’s smirk shifted into a zipper-toothed grin at the mention of snacks. “Grab the Gummy worms,” he commanded. Dib rolled his eyes as he stood up from Zim’s couch and headed towards the kitchen. Of course the bug wanted some of the snacks that Dib brought for himself. Zim practically (and sometimes literally) inhaled Dib’s snack supply. It was really starting to strain his minimum-wage-fueled wallet. He grabbed the bag of gummy worms and some chips from the cabinet and then moved to the fridge to retrieve the last POOP Cola

“BRING ZIM A COLA TOO!”

_ Of course,  _ Dib thought. He returned to the living room, tossing Zim’s requests over, which the alien caught with aggravating grace, before plopping back down onto the couch. Zim alternated between stuffing his face with gummy worms and gulping down his drink beside Dib.  _ At least savor it, you ungrateful prick. _ It was difficult for Dib to recall the point where this became normal - sitting next to his nemesis often enough to know his eating habits (just a sickening amount of sugar and junk food). The pair’s relationship had changed drastically during high school. Zim still tried to take over the world sometimes, though less often, and Dib still tried to stop him, but in the time between, the two found no reason to keep up the admittedly exhausting rivalry. It was around the time that Dib started to realize that Gaz was right about Zim being incapable of conquering Earth that the two were paired together to present at the science fair. They had had to form a cease-fire after the first bloody, unproductive day. Capturing a wendigo to present at the fair had revealed how well they worked together, even if they both failed for bringing a “dog” to school. That truce had never really ended.

And now here they were, watching Netflix. Dib was surprised that it had taken the pair this long to come together in their shared loneliness. Highschool had so graciously gifted Dib with self awareness as to just how much of an outcast he was, and ever since the florpus incident, Zim’s naivety about his “mission” had developed a crack. That’s what Dib had gathered from the snippets that Zim let escape, at least (the Irken was still infuriatingly tight-lipped). At some point the distinction between time spent together as enemies and time spent together as friends was lost. Now instead of fighting each other, they duelled it out over video games. Instead of most days being spent building doomsday machines and watching cameras, they were spent working on homework and watching shows they both enjoyed. They both had to admit that it felt good to not be alone on Earth.

“COMPUTER! Open the Netflix thing,” Zim commanded. The logo appeared on the screen, accompanied by Computer’s usual bored sass. “You don’t have to be at work until two, right? Let’s finish watching Japan Sinks.”

“Sure,” Dib agreed.

“Excellent! Zim must see how the Urth-children escape the  _ horrible, disgusting Urth water. _ ”

Zim always got so tense during the scenes with water. It was hilarious to watch. “You really like watching disasters, huh?”

“Your planet is so inferior that it destroys itself! If Zim had known this I would have conquered the Urth  _ years  _ ago without lifting a finger!”

Dib just laughed and ignored the part about conquering. “Heh, I guess so.”

* * *

Professor Membrane glanced down to see the angry, blinking red light on his wrist that had alerted him to a containment breach in his home lab.  _ This could be very, very bad.  _ His children weren’t home, thank goodness. The last thing he needed right now was to worry about their safety. He entered the elevator and pressed the button for his lab.

The doors slid open to reveal a once clinical room now blanketed in dust. It had been some time since Membrane had had the luxury of working on his pet projects in his home laboratory. The four tubes on the far wall cast a green glow over the tables of instruments and half-baked contraptions.

_ Shit. _

He was too late. Dib Alpha was nowhere in sight, and two of the three remaining pods had been smashed open. Membrane didn’t need to look to know what he’d done to their occupants. Gaz Alpha was still alive and resting in her pod at least, but Alpha would return for her, no doubt. Other objects in the lab had been bashed, torn, and otherwise scattered. Membrane’s meticulous notes on his children had been torn finely enough to be unrecognizable. 

This was the worst case scenario.  _ How did this happen? The dream was supposed to keep them complacent. _ Membrane shook his head. This was no time to ask  _ how. _ A homicidal teenager of his creation was on the hunt for Dib, Gaz, their friend Zim… _ me… _ He had to find Alpha before Alpha found them, and be prepared to stop him, if it came to it.


	3. First Contact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dib Alpha tracks Dib Charlie down at his job and Membrane rushes to save him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of violence and angst in this one.

Dib was weighing how much he really needed this job. The Foodie Mart Corporation gave him a lot of good things - like a car that got thirty miles to the gallon (not bad), money to spend on the paranormal gear that he blew through too often, and a discount that allowed him to sustain Zim’s eating habits without breaking the bank. What it  _ didn’t _ give him was pea-

“Hi, welcome to Foodie Mart,” Dib shot at the customer who just entered in his usual tired, forced customer service voice. The shopper just ignored him.

_ Right. Anyway…  _ It didn’t give him peace for his anxiety, time to make friends who aren’t alien militants, or the general happiness that he so desired. The threat of being thrown into deep debt by the combined weight of ZIM’s and his own expenses won out, and so began his eighth hour.

“Hi, welcome to Foodie Mart.”

One would think that Dib wouldn’t need to work a day in his life, given that everyone regarded his dad as a saint (a very rich, very demanding saint). “When I was your age,” he had said, “I worked three jobs to put myself through school. You will find a job, build some character, and  _ blah blah blah _ .” He was always trying to get Dib to live his life  _ exactly  _ as he had, and that involved giving Dib no money to work with. Dib was probably the only one in his class who paid utility bills.

“Hi, welcome to Foodie Ma-” Dib froze behind the counter. Standing just inside the entrance was someone who looked  _ just  _ like him.  _ Huh, that’s new. _ His dad encountered cosplayers all the time, but nobody cared enough about his son to cosplay Dib. The teenager was wearing the same trench coat, but had the wrong shirt on.  _ Needs some work.  _ He was holding what looked like a Foodie Mart uniform in one hand and...wait, was that Dib’s food cannon on their arm? 

“HEY! Where’d you get tha-” was all Dib got out before the storefront exploded. The blast had thrown Dib back into the cash register and he was now slumped on the floor in pain. The linoleum in front of him was charred black, and smoke clouded his vision. The sprinklers finally went off. Dib made out the shadowy figure moving towards him through the smoke and was up immediately. Reflexes developed from a childhood of fighting Zim carried him over the conveyor belt and deeper into the store. The few customers who were shopping this late scurried past Dib in a dash for the exit.  _ Nope.  _ **_Definitely_ ** _ not his food cannon. _ Dib pushed himself against the end of an aisle and waited for his doppelganger to approach. It wouldn’t be long now. He could hear the steps growing near.

“I made some improvements to my food cannon. Used some of Zim’s junk you had stashed in the garage. Hope you don’t mind.” Dib had taken advantage of his attacker’s monologue to slip down the neighboring aisle. If he could just sneak past him to the exit… 

A large, metal arm shot out of the canned beans and grabbed onto Dib’s fleshy one. The growing heat on his arm alerted Dib that another shot was charging up. Thinking fast, he forced the arm down onto the shelf, breaking his arm free and allowing him to duck just in time to avoid the blast of energy. The shelves that were in the line of fire toppled like dominoes into a smoldering wreck. Dib made a break for the front of the store. As he bolted down the aisle, blasts tore through the store behind him, barely missing him and singing his clothes. He was so close to the door now, but as he reached the front of the store, so did the attacker. The collar of Dib’s shirt was yanked backwards and he was thrown down onto the linoleum.

Looking up to meet a face filled with homicidal intent is scary enough, but the fear factor is compounded when the face harboring it is your own. A boot planted firmly on Dib’s chest shook him from his stupor. The imposter smiled down at him. 

“Still slippery as ever, I see.” He aimed the cannon and Dib’s look of desperation was illuminated by the red glow of the weapon charging up.

“Can’t promise this will be painless,” the imposter continued to taunt. His gloating was cut short, however, as a blue explosion erupted from the shelf next to him. The shot meant for Dib was instead loosed on the front of the store. Blinding streaks of blue and red flew in every direction and canned food was tossed into the air. Deciding to use this distraction, Dib turned and crouch-ran towards the back of the store, where the exit and his salvation resided. He skidded through the doors and turned to run for the emergency exit, but a blast knocked something through the doors after him and Dib was knocked to the ground yet again by something large, heavy, and parental. Membrane groaned from on top of him, but managed to stand before Dib’s lookalike followed them into the back of the store.

Membrane’s arms vented the heat that had built up from the battle and he assumed a ready stance over the still-prone Dib. 

“I know that this must all be very upsetting, Alpha-”

“You have no idea how I feel - how it feels to be a failed experiment, replaced and forgotten, to find out the life you’ve been living is a lie!”

“I know, and I am sorry. The simulation should have held - I have no idea what went wrong-”

“So you were just going to leave me in there for the rest of my life? Is that all I’m worth to you?”

“No - No, you are very valuable to me, Alpha. I kept you in stasis because of your significance.”

“Significant to your research. Significant to creating the perfect son. How’s that coming along?” Alpha glared down at Dib on the floor, squirming and becoming very uncomfortable with the exchange happening before him. More flashing blue and red lights came from the front of the store, this time from the arrival of the police, not exchanging laser fire.

“THIS IS THE POLICE! WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED! PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!” a voice rang out through a loudspeaker. Alpha turned away long enough for Membrane to scoop Dib up and ignite his jet boots. Alpha roared and fired wildly at them as they escaped through the emergency exit and into the night. When Alpha’s threats faded away behind them, Dib relaxed a little. Now he had time to actually think about the whole situation.

“Dad?”

“Yes, son?”

Dib connected what information he had gathered from their confrontation with Alpha. He didn’t like the picture that was forming. Still, he had to know. So he asked, “Did you make him?”

“Yes.”

“Did you make...me?”

“... Yes.”

Dib suddenly felt ill. His already pale complexion turned almost pure white and his eyes darted around frantically. 

“Put me down.”

“Son, we-”

“I SAID PUT ME DOWN!”

Membrane, startled a bit, landed under a streetlamp and released Dib. Dib began to pace frantically with his hands on his head.  _ No, no, no, no, no. That can’t be - I can’t be a clone. I’m… I’m…  _

“What am I to you?”

“You’re my son.”

“How many of me are there?”

“... There have been two before you, but -”

“When did I come in?”

“... The previous generation was placed in cryostasis after he attempted to kill your friend, Zim. Beta almost died in the process from the shock whatever contraption he was using put his body under. I believed I had been successful in eliminating your violent tendencies, but I was wrong.”

Dib didn’t remember that. He and Zim had came close to killing each other many times, but that scenario hadn’t happened.

“I don’t remember that.”

“You wouldn’t. I precluded that from your memory. It was the only way to help you, son.”

“So you’re saying my memories aren’t even mine? They’re just recycled from another clone? What else did you take from my memory?”

“Son, this isn’t the time. We have to get you to safety.”

Dib glanced up from rubbing his hands, incredulous.

“Safety? You’re the one that caused all this in the first place! I would’ve been  _ safe _ if you didn’t make a death squad of clones.”

“Son, calm down. You’re getting worked up.” Membrane made a move to grab Dib, but Dib jerked away and began running down the street.

“Dib! Come back! It’s not safe!” Dib could hear Membrane’s jet boots ignite as he made to follow him. It was dark though, and Dib had experience shaking tails. Once past the streetlights, he ducked into an alleyway and crossed onto the next street. He couldn’t hear the jets anymore. It was just him now. Still, he felt crowded. Everything was too close and he was starting to feel overloaded. _How old was he, really?_ _Did Gaz know? Had Zim noticed?_ Too many thoughts came rushing in at once. He realized that he had been picking at the skin of his fingertips again. _Damnit._

He switched to popping his knuckles - much less destructive. Then he froze as realization crashed into him. _Zim. Violent. Oh_ ** _shit._** Zim’s house wasn’t far. Dib just hoped his clone didn’t realize how close it was.


End file.
